EYE SEE YOU (2002) Blu-ray Review

Eye See You (aka D-Tox) (2002) d. Jim Gillespie (USA) (96 min)

After a serial cop-killer racks up nine victims with no leads in sight, the Feds assign Jake Malloy (Sylvester Stallone) to the case, not knowing the agent is the real target for torment. Seems our intrepid lawman fouled up the psycho’s intricate masterpiece of murder involving prostitutes a few years back and vengeance is now on the menu, first in the form of Red (James Kidnie), his best buddy in blue and then Mary (Dina Meyer), his lovely fiancee. Distraught and suicidally alcoholic, Malloy is encouraged by his superior (Charles S. Dutton) to visit a specialized detox center in remote and snowy Wyoming, where he joins an array of similarly addicted keepers of the peace of every stripe… who immediately start getting bumped off by our supposedly dead killer.

VFW (2019) Blu-ray Review

VFW (2019) d. Joe Begos (USA) (92 min)

After attempting to stretch with his modern vampire flick Bliss, Begos crashes back to earth, seemingly content in being the worst kind of Tarantino imitator, i.e. interested only in serving up “tributes” of established tropes and subgenres under his own byline. Having done body snatcher (Almost Human) and psychokinetic (The Mind’s Eye) flicks, he now offers up a siege film (Assault on Precinct 13 is the obvious model and, yes, I know that John Carpenter was himself riffing off Rio Bravo, thank you very much) combined with Stallone’s The Expendables series by hiring over-the-hill cult actors (Stephen Lang, William Sadler, Martin Kove, Daniel Patrick Kelly, George Wendt, Fred Williamson) to play a group of retired soldiers defending their local watering hole from a horde of strung-out (and wildly ineffectual) druggies.

THE MONKEY'S PAW (2013) movie review

The Monkey’s Paw (2013) d. Brett Simmons (USA)

Kicking off with a bleaker version of the original tale’s finale, this adaptation by screenwriter Macon Blair acts as a both a sequel to and an updating of W.W. Jacobs’ classic short story of twisted wish fulfillment. C.J. Thomason stars as a New Orleans blue collar worker with minimal prospects and even fewer aspirations, content to grind out the hours then drown sorrows at the local watering hole with co-workers Stephen Lang and Corbin Bleu. But one night, former supervisor Daniel Hugh Kelly brings out the titular wrinkled keepsake from his youth, gives it to Thomason and before you can say “Deadtime for Bonzo,” the ill-advised wishes start a-flyin’.